Jose Maria Sison: At Home In The World - Portrait Of A Revolutionary / Conversations With Ninotchka Rosca

This political biography/autobiography offers a unique look into the political beliefs and motivations of Professor Sison, renowned revolutionary leader, writer, poet and founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CCP).

This collaboration between Sison and American Book Award winning novelist, Ninotchka Rosca, goes far to illuminate the political climate and history of the United States' role in Filipino politics. In the frank exchange between Sison and Rosca regarding the Filipino revolutionary movement, the issues of women's rights and empowerment within the CCP, as well as ethnicity, class, age and education, are also addressed.

In light of the upcoming US presidential election and the controversy surrounding terrorism and the Bush Administration, Jose Maria Sison: At Home in the World - Portrait of a Revolutionary is a book that can offer the "other side" of the story, chronicling the life of a Filipino revolutionary, his political party and his country, untouched and unfiltered by outside political propaganda.

Jose Maria Sison was born February 8, 1939. At the University of the Philippines he majored in English – i.e. literature (not political science, as many assume)and founded the Kabataang Makabayan,(Patriotic Youth), founded or co-founded a host of other organizations; re-established the Communist Party of the Philippines in 1969 and directly led it until his capture in 1977; spent more than eight years in prison; was heavily tortured and held incommunicado.

Released in 1986, he founded the Partido ng Bayan and was then forced into exile in Holland where he has spent the last decade. He is the author of the seminal books, Struggle for National Democracy, and under the nom de guerre Amado Guerrero, Philippine Society and Revolution, Specific Characteristics of Our People’s War, and Our Urgent Tasks.

These unique characteristics would evolve and become the hallmarks of Philippine militancy. The organizations he led summed up these virtues in succinct phrases (serve the people; dare to struggle, etc ..) and spread them throughout the archipelago. Such clarity of purpose and clarity of action enabled the people to weather decades of the Marcoses as well as demoralization over succeeding Philippine regimes.

By labeling Jose Maria Sison a "terrorist" – sans proof, sans process -- freezing his and his wife’s bank account (containing $1,000), and cutting off the pathetic Dutch government subsidy intended to keep him and his family at subsistence-level existence -- all these actions were so palpably unjust and unwarranted, and so grossly insulting of the Filipino people, that they unmasked those who advocated them as anti-democratic, violators of human and civil rights, and just plain fascists.

The governments of Europe, US, Canada and the Philippines keep trying to bury Jose Maria Sison and only succeed in having songs sung in his praise. In the midst of whatever adversity, Joma Sison constantly gives Filipinos a reason to affirm and celebrate themselves as a people. They should continue to do so, the Sison way.

Ninotchka Rosca is an internationally acclaimed journalist and novelist from the Philippines. She has five published books and some 400 by-lined articles. She has received numerous awards for both journalism and literature, including the American Book Award for the novel Twice Blessed.

Rosca has also been active around the issues of human rights, freedom of expression and women’s rights. She was the founding chair of the women’s solidarity organization GABRIELA Network USA. She admits to having, as a writer, "the propensity to walk into the heart of controversy" – hence this collaboration with the founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines.